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The Santorum campaign on Friday released a statement confirming that GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum and his wife Karen have taken their 3-year-old daughter Bella to the hospital.

Hogan Gidley, National Communications director, said: "The family requests prayers and privacy as Bella works her way to recovery."

Bella, the youngest of the couple's seven children, suffers from Trisomy 18, which is a rare genetic disorder in which an individual has three copies of the 18th chromosome, as opposed to two.

The disorder presents significant health challenges and most children, an estimated 90 percent, do not survive their first year of life due to the condition. Those who do survive suffer significant health complications.

In late January, the couple suffered a scare as Bella was admitted to the hospital after suffering with a bout of pneumonia and a cold.

"This is our daughter, period. She is a blessing no matter what she is," said Rick Santorum stated earlier at an event with evangelical leader James Dobson. "She is exactly what God wanted to give us,"

His wife has also stated, "This is the child that no one said would live for even a day, and we feel so blessed, we celebrate every moment of her life, every single day."

The former senator has recently been under pressure to drop out of the GOP presidential race after losing several recent primaries and falling further behind in the delegate count.